I admired Nol's philosophy, though I kept an anxious look-out on the larboard bow, dreading every instant to catch a sight of the shore, past which I knew we should have a narrow shave, even should we be fortunate enough to escape being driven against it. The coolest man on board was Tom Rockets. He kept walking the deck with his hands in his pockets, ready enough, I saw, for action, but certainly not as if a fierce hurricane was raging around him. Now and then he had to pull out his hands to lay hold of the bulwarks as the craft gave a lively roll, or plunged down into the trough of a sea; but as soon as she grew comparatively steady, he began walking away as before. On we drove. The dreaded coast did not appear. Still I could scarcely hope that we had passed it. The wind began to shift about at last. Grampus said that it was the termination of the hurricane. Still it might play us a scurvy trick before it was over, and drive us on some inhospitable shore. I began now to look for further signs of the ending of the storm. It got round to the northward, and on we drove till we caught sight of the coast. It was a most unwelcome sight, though, for should the little craft once get within the power of the breakers, which were dashing furiously against it, I could not hope that a single man on board would escape with his life. Even Tom Rockets began to think that the state of things was not so pleasant as it might be. I saw that he had taken his hands out of his pockets, and was holding on with the rest of the people. Away we drove--the threatening shore every minute growing more and more distinct. "What prospect is there, think you, Grampus, of the hurricane coming to an end?" said I. For from want of anything else to be done I was obliged to keep my tongue going. "I thought as how it was going to break but just now, Mr Hurry," he answered, casting his eye all round the horizon. "It seems, howsomedever, to have breezed up again, and if it don't shift before long, there's little chance of the schooner's living, or any of us either for that matter, many hours more." "We must meet our fate, then, like men, and Christians too, I hope," I answered, looking at him. "We have done all that men can do, I believe." "Yes, sir, that we have," he replied. "We can do no more, and it isn't the first time Nol Grampus has had to look Death in the face, so I hopes that I shall not shrink from him. Come he will, I know, some day, sooner or later; and it matters little, as far as I can see, if he comes to-day or to-morrow." "Not if we put our trust in One who is able and willing to save our souls alive," I observed. "That makes all the difference whether death should be feared or welcomed. It is not what we suffer in this world that we should dread, but what we may deserve to suffer in the next; in the same way it is not what we enjoy here, but what we may be able to enjoy through all eternity, that we should long for."